Saturday, April 4, 1998Last modified at 12:51 a.m. on Saturday, April 4, 1998

Judges survey site of 'Bloody Sunday' killings

LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland (AP) - An international panel of judges charged with investigating "Bloody Sunday" surveyed the site Friday where British soldiers killed 13 Catholic demonstrators in 1972.

Lord Saville and his deputies from Canada and New Zealand, William Hoyt and Sir Edward Somers, toured the Catholic Bogside district of Londonderry after pledging "fairness, thoroughness and impartiality" in their probe.

They stood atop the city's 17th-century walls after being shown spots below where Catholic protesters were shot. Local people pointed out walls still pocked by bullets from the army's worst killing in Northern Ireland.

"People aren't going up and shaking their hands. They're too suspicious based on what happened last time," said Don Mullan, a teen-age protester in 1972 who has written a book on Bloody Sunday.

A 1972 investigation by England's senior judge infuriated Catholics. The judge, Lord Widgery, said the soldiers' shooting was justified on the grounds that they came under sustained fire by Irish Republican Army gunmen. He decided that some of those killed were armed, although no weapons were recovered and no soldiers were injured.

Prime Minister Tony Blair authorized the new inquiry in January in response to a relentless campaign by relatives.

Saville said the Bloody Sunday inquiry is already working its way through a mountain of paper and will start taking testimony in Londonderry in September.

It also hopes to hear testimony in London from British politicians and former soldiers. Saville noted that granting immunity from prosecution for murder might be necessary "to encourage people to come forward and speak frankly."

Eamonn McCann, who like thousands of Bloody Sunday witnesses says the soldiers fired without provocation, said Saville impressed him as "very focused, very alert - he misses almost nothing."

But McCann said the participation of the Canadian and New Zealand jurists was crucial. "It builds confidence for people in Derry that the tribunal is not headed solely by an English judge," he said, "But we're still wary."

Earlier Friday, survivors and relatives of the Bloody Sunday dead staged a symbolic march from the spot where soldiers blocked their way in 1972. They were protesting the government's internment without trial of IRA suspects.

"If the original march had got to the Guildhall, as it should have done, there would have been no murder in Derry that day," said John Kelly, whose brother was among those slain.